The present invention relates to an equipment for reproduction of alphanumerical data, which comprises an operating unit having an alphanumerical keyboard adapted to generate at least as many coded control signals as the characters which can be generated for reproduction, a control unit for the detection of the control signals generated by the operating unit, and circuit means for the generation, through reproducer means, of alphanumerical data formed by the characters selected by means of the operating unit.
The equipment, in its various configurations, may be a television set provided with an alphanumerical display device adapted to display alphanumerical data on the television screen; it may be a generic apparatus, in particular a television set, provided with color picture display means for displaying the alphanumerical data; it may be a radioelectric signal receiver, for example a television set or a radio set, provided with an alphanumerical character display device; it may be an apparatus comprising means for the reproduction of alphanumerical data on a display screen (television set, peripheral unit in a computer system, etc.) or reproducer printing device (typewriter, printing machine in a computer system) or vocal reproducer devices.
The known prior art apparatuses are designed to perform various functions (for example, for a television set, direct channel selection, the memorization of a large number of programs, time display, timed turn-on or program switching, etc.) which can be performed easily with the aid of a suitably programmed microprocessor.
The television sets are preferably fitted with display devices for supplying data relative to the foregoing functions. However, these display devices are usually only designed to provide a numerical indication of the time, channel and/or program, and the keyboards by means of which the foregoing functions are controlled possess a limited number of keys which cannot allow a large number of operations on the set.
Consequently, the microprocessor is not used to a sufficient extent as regards its data processing capacity, because of the insufficiency of the display means connected to it and the control device supplying it with the data to be processed.